Living More with Less (But Not Necessarily That Much Less)

Last weekend, I ran a war tax
resistance information booth at the
“Living More With
Less” voluntary simplicity conference in Oakland. It was a good conference — articulate and entertaining speakers and an overall lack of the sort of
granola-talk that often turns Bay Area events like these into real eye-rollers.

Many people showed interest in tax resistance and came up to ask questions or
to browse our literature. One of our pamphlets, “Low Income / Simple Living as
War Tax Resistance” from
NWTRCC,
was especially popular. Alas, it’s also dated. It doesn’t mention things like
Health Savings Accounts, or even
IRAs,
and tends on the whole to make this form of tax resistance seem excessively
renunciatory and difficult.

Speaking of which, here’s a bit from the opening paragraph of a new article
about activist Kathy Kelly from the Boise Weekly:

$3,000! If that were really what it took to do tax resistance this way, I’d
find some other method. Articles like these can do as much harm as good by on
the one hand giving an inspiring example of tax resistance and on the other
hand making it seem like some frightening martyrdom and daunting sacrifice.

The war tax resistance movement is guilty of contributing to this impression.
Its literature universally makes this path seem more difficult than it is, and
its representatives frequently repeat the misinformation about how you have to
live below the poverty line to live below the tax line. For example, here’s
Ruth Benn of
NWTRCC,
writing in the latest The Nonviolent Activist:

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